Mooney/
Mooney Goes Wild

Mooney, Wednesday June 25th 2014

On Mooney today...

As Mrs Brown's Boys hits the silver screen, Derek hears from Rory Cowan about life in the limelight. The diverse traits and foibles of mammies from around the world are celebrated. And from soul mates to goal mates - Brenda Donohue meets a dieting couple who between them have lost an incredible 18 stone!

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No-Bake Baking Book!

Derek starts the show today by chatting about a book which was sent into him called No-Bake Baking: Easy Oven-Free Cakes & Treats by Sharon Hearne-Smith, with photographs by Donal Skehan. It features recipes such as Mango & Passionfruit Muffin-Cup Cheesecakes, Peppermint Cream Buttons and White Chocolate, Macademia & Cranberry Biscuit Bars! Yum! The book is published by Quercus Cookery, the ISBN is 978-1-84866-622-1 and the RRP is £16.99. More details are available here.

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Mrs. Brown's Boys

Mrs Brown's Boys has come an awful long way since it first featured on Gareth O'Callaghan's 2fm show in 1992. Seven years later, the show's writer Brendan O'Carroll looked to Hollywood actress Angelica Huston to play Mrs Brown in a big screen production of Agnes Brown (The Mammy). The film was not a success but stage shows, straight to DVD movies and radio plays followed throughout the noughties - along with a series of books.

And it was on Mooney, in December 2010, that Brendan O’Carroll announced that a major new TV series was in the pipeline. It's become on of the most popular shows on TV, not just here but in the UK, where the Christmas special last year picked up a whopping 19 MILLION viewers!

Many an Irish personality has popped up in a cameo role in the show, including our own Derek, who played a hypnotist. Despite being panned by many critics, Mrs Brown's Boys has been a massive hit with audiences.

Later today Mrs. Brown's Boys - D'Movie premiers here in Dublin, and to celebrate the show and the movie, we are joined in studio by Rory Cowan, aka Rory!

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Couple Lose Eighteen Stone In One Year

This morning, our reporter Brenda Donohue went to meet Gary and Jenny Nolan. From Killoe in Co. Longford were married on June 30th 2012 and went on the honeymoon of a lifetime in March 2013 to the Seychelles. They were soul mates, but there was one thing they were unhappy with - their combined eighteen stone of additional weight.

Gary and Jenny before the start of their weightloss programme

Gary (30) was 25 st 5lbs, and Jenny (25) was 20 st 1lb. After seeing their wedding and honeymoon photos, the couple realised they were not the bride and groom they always dreamed they would be, so decided to do something for the sake of their health and long term happiness. In May 2013, they went for an assessment in the Athlone Motivation Weight Management Clinic.

Gary and Jenny in Arnotts this morning

It was the start of a remarkable journey to health and fitness, as Brenda found out...

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The Journey's On Us 2014

For the past two years, Mooney have teamed up with Irish Rail for their "The Journey's On Us" giveaway. As part of this initiative, Iarnród Éireann will provide 100 groups with free return rail for up to 50 people per group.

It's a brilliant initiative and what we found over the last two years is it provides a fantastic day out for community, voluntary and charity groups.

Mooney reporter Brenda Donohue is in Céannt Railway Station in Galway for the launch of The Journey’s On Us 2014

Iarnród Éireann Irish Rail has launched the 2014 programme for The Journey’s On Us, an initiative to support organisations and groups in the voluntary, community, sporting and charity sector.

"The Journey's On Us" will provide 100 groups with a free group travel return journey for up to 50 people per group during 2014, meaning 5,000 free journeys are on offer across the company's services. The travel facilities will be ideal in particular for organisations bringing a group to a special event, or as part of a specific support to the members of the group which requires travel.

Iarnród Éireann Chief Executive David Franks said "Voluntary organisations are the life blood of communities across the country. However, like everyone, their budgets have been cut. We know there are youth, sports, music, voluntary, charity and other groups in the community who would benefit greatly from being able to undertake initiatives which involve a travel cost, but have had to scale back. We in Iarnród Éireann, through The Journey's On Us, want to do what we can to help such groups achieve their goals, and say thank you to the organisations which play such a vital role in the daily lives of communities. The initiative is now in its third year with the interest and amount of groups applying has grown significantly each year, which we are absolutely delighted with."

The company has today invited all community, voluntary, sporting and charity groups to apply for the 100 group travel trips available. Entry forms are available at all Iarnród Éireann stations or online at www.irishrail.ie/journeys . Entry forms can be filled out online, emailed tojourneys@irishrail.ie or by post to Corporate Communications, Iarnród Éireann, Connolly Station, Dublin 1. The closing date for receipt of entries is Monday July 14th, at 16.30hrs.

Last year, over 750 groups applied for the scheme, and organisations ranging from Men's Sheds to choirs, Special Olympics to Girl Guides, and groups representing youth and elderly, benefited from "The Journey's On Us". Last year Iarnród Éireann offered for the first time a special prize for the winning group that submitted the most interesting and inspirational account of their day travelling with them. The winner of the prize was Special Hands Activity Group from Kelly, Co. Meath.

The initiative is being supported nationally by RTÉ Radio 1's Mooney, and Brenda Donohue is joining customers and staff at Ceannt Railway Station, Galway today to launch "The Journey's On Us" 2014. They were joined by Galway Community Circus who were a winner of one of the trips last year. Mooney will also feature successful groups throughout the year.

All applications will be considered by an adjudicating panel and successful groups will be notified from July onwards. For further information and to see terms and conditions please log onto www.irishrail.ie/journeys.

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Singles Night Out!

We are organising a singles night out for our listeners who are over 35! The where and when is still being finalised, but if you are interested in joining in the fun, then send us an e-mail! Let us know your age, gender, and if you are single. You must be available to travel to the venue at your own expense. Please send your e-mail to mooney@rte.ie, with the subject line 'Singles Night Out'. And keep listening for further information!

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Search For A Child Star Finalists

Earlier this year, we launched our competition to find Ireland's newest child star. The competition was open to boys and girls who were aged 10 years old or under. We asked you to record a piece that was no more than three minutes long, and e-mail it in to us.

The finalists, in no particular order, are:

- Hannah Kinsella (9 years old, from Lucan, Co. Dublin) with Pushover- Nikki Brown (8 years old, from Saggart, Co. Dublin) with Colours Of The Wind- Anna Lily Fox (6 years old, from Ballinalee, Co. Longford) with a Johnny Cash medley- Laoise Farrell (9 years old, from Ogonnolloe. Co. Clare) with The Call- Alannah Bermingham (10 years old, from Kilmacud, Dublin) with Colours Of The Wind

The date for the final will be announced shortly and the winner will perform at our Christmas Mooney Tunes concert.

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Hedgerows: It is an offence to 'cut, grub, burn or otherwise destroy hedgerows on uncultivated land during the nesting season from 1 March to 31 August, subject to certain exceptions'. For more information, click here.